Rating: 
Summary: I was there
Review: Patricia Warren has a nack for taking the reader on a journey. While reading "The Front Runner" I developed a closeness with the charectors, when the two main charectors were running through the forest, i was there, hearing every branch break under their feet.What makes this a great novel is the relationship it forms between the reader and the writer,and it doesn't get overly erotic, at one point regarding a love encounter Harlan tells the reader "the rest i will keep to myself because it's just between us" On one occation Ms. Warren seemed to take an excesive time discribing a path with a creek running through it, but after that short delay I was right back into the story. "The Front Runner" is a great book with a shocking ending, it's by far the most heart touching book i have ever read. Ms. Warren suggest that love isn't bound by what others might think of it. this book is a solid 5 stars
Rating:
Summary: Angonizing heartbreak and joyful triumphs
Review: The Front Runner is a novel that I will continue to recommend and read several times. The heartfelt agony of the characters, especially Billy and Harlan, is offset by the triumphs they achieve together and seperately. Set in the homophobic world of sports in the 70's, this novel has captured the essence of the inner turmoil and external conflict that any openly or closeted gay felt in the sports arena during this period. Patricia Warren did an outstanding job of giving us the opportunity to delve into the glory of the human spirit and to witness a victory over the persecution of bigots. A love story between two men is not often written that contains feelings of more than lust and quick backroom lays. However, The Front Runner is a rare story of love between two men that touches something in each of us. It is a story of longing and desire, but also one of triumph and agony. The Front Runner set new standards for gay novels and has continued to be a favorite for millions all across the world
Rating:
Summary: The Right Book at the Right Time by the Right Author
Review: The idea that THE FRONT RUNNER was the first novel to address gay men and their romantic and sexual relationships is myth. A host of novels predate it, including Gore Vidal's 1948 THE CITY AND THE PILLAR and Mary Renault's brilliant 1959 THE CHARIOTEER. By the 1960s gay characters began to crack the bestseller lists with considerable regularity, with Gavin Lambert's INSIDE DAISY CLOVER a case in point. But THE FRONT RUNNER was very much the right book at the right time by the right author--and it would become legendary as the voice of a new generation. The Stonewall Riots, which marked a turning point in the struggle for equal rights, was barely five years old when THE FRONT RUNNER was published, and few people--including many in the gay community--had any serious context for the story Warren offered. Consequently, Warren took nothing for granted: she created that context through a series of meticulously described backgrounds, something that made the book widely accessible to mainstream readers. And when THE FRONT RUNNER hit the bookstore it proved a revelation for both homosexual and heterosexuals alike: it flew off the shelves, becoming one of the most critically lauded and widely read novels of its decade. The story concerns Harlan, a college track coach who is rocked out of the closet when three world class athletes land on his doorstep after being expelled for homosexuality from a major university. One of the three is Billy--and Billy is everything that Harlan has both hungered for and feared: a man with whom Harlan could fall in love. Although many regard it as love story pure and simple, THE FRONT RUNNER is really a sociopolitical novel. At the time, there was little balance in public discourse on homosexuality--and as Harlan and his runners attain increasing fame they must also deal with public reaction to their increasingly open sexuality. Then as now, the price for such openness could be extremely high, and in the spotlight of the track field the price for Harlan and Billy will be beyond reckoning. Some may feel the book is dated. The 1970s slang is so quaint! And is it really necessary to point out that gay men actually fall in love, that their relationships involve much more than sex? Is it really necessary to detail Stonewall? Do we have to go over the whole ground of being in the closet again? Surely we can take all that for granted now! Yes, we can. But one reason we can is that Patricia Nell Warren put it all on the table in the first place. The world has changed a great deal since the early 1970s, but even with the advent of AIDS, civil unions, and the controversy over same-sex marriage THE FRONT RUNNER still exerts a powerful influence. It was and is a remarkable novel, and it will doubtlessly remain so for as long as love and sexuality remain twin victims of reactionary hysteria. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: The Right Book at the Right Time by the Right Author
Review: The idea that THE FRONT RUNNER was the first novel to address gay men and their romantic and sexual relationships is myth. A host of novels predate it, including Gore Vidal's 1948 THE CITY AND THE PILLAR and Mary Renault's brilliant 1959 THE CHARIOTEER. By the 1960s gay characters began to crack the bestseller lists with considerable regularity, with Gavin Lambert's INSIDE DAISY CLOVER a case in point. But THE FRONT RUNNER was very much the right book at the right time by the right author--and it would become legendary as the voice of a new generation. The Stonewall Riots, which marked a turning point in the struggle for equal rights, was barely five years old when THE FRONT RUNNER was published, and few people--including many in the gay community--had any serious context for the story Warren offered. Consequently, Warren took nothing for granted: she created that context through a series of meticulously described backgrounds, something that made the book widely accessible to mainstream readers. And when THE FRONT RUNNER hit the bookstore it proved a revelation for both homosexual and heterosexuals alike: it flew off the shelves, becoming one of the most critically lauded and widely read novels of its decade. The story concerns Harlan, a college track coach who is rocked out of the closet when three world class athletes land on his doorstep after being expelled for homosexuality from a major university. One of the three is Billy--and Billy is everything that Harlan has both hungered for and feared: a man with whom Harlan could fall in love. Although many regard it as love story pure and simple, THE FRONT RUNNER is really a sociopolitical novel. At the time, there was little balance in public discourse on homosexuality--and as Harlan and his runners attain increasing fame they must also deal with public reaction to their increasingly open sexuality. Then as now, the price for such openness could be extremely high, and in the spotlight of the track field the price for Harlan and Billy will be beyond reckoning. Some may feel the book is dated. The 1970s slang is so quaint! And is it really necessary to point out that gay men actually fall in love, that their relationships involve much more than sex? Is it really necessary to detail Stonewall? Do we have to go over the whole ground of being in the closet again? Surely we can take all that for granted now! Yes, we can. But one reason we can is that Patricia Nell Warren put it all on the table in the first place. The world has changed a great deal since the early 1970s, but even with the advent of AIDS, civil unions, and the controversy over same-sex marriage THE FRONT RUNNER still exerts a powerful influence. It was and is a remarkable novel, and it will doubtlessly remain so for as long as love and sexuality remain twin victims of reactionary hysteria. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Perspective and Discovery
Review: This book is a superbly crafted work. I (like so many others) first read this book when I was 18 years old. In my youthful naiveté, I kept wondering how a woman could see things from a gay male perspective with such clarity and reality. How COULD she know and understand so well what I felt? Ms. Warren used her descriptive powers and a truly warm honesty to draw us into this story like few others before or since. Imagine my astonishment when I found "The Front Runner" in a mainstream bookshop in Oklahoma City! I saw the cover art on the first paperback edition (not the current cover art, but certainly not "lurid" either) and I SNATCHED up the book. Standing between the book racks, I read the first page. I skipped forward and read more. I found myself shaking. Until I found this book, all I knew about being gay was a few brief glimpses I'd caught of truly ugly porn, what I'd heard from my father's pulpit, and a boy in my highschool (whom I avoided like the plague) who had pink hair and a sexy (and unfortunately, swishy) walk. I read this book from cover to cover three times that week. I laughed when Harlan set a seven-minute pace on the way to the clearing where they FINALLY made it. I ran 20 or more miles every day and so that little touch of my own world, that instant of wry humor just as they were about to "do it" made the book even MORE real for me.) I could SEE Billy and Harlan, and I could SEE that clearing! Reading this book gave me a much needed change in my worldview. The sudden discovery that I could be like Billy; that if I grew up and become the kind of man Ms. Warren described in Harlan (faults and all) it would be ok, was (to put it mildly) a revelation. Athletic "macho gay" men who weren't caricatures, LOVING each other! It was incredible, and it was DEFINATELY the positive influence that I needed in 1976. I remember the rumors that "The Front Runner" would be made into a major motion picture. "Redford has bought the rights." "Newman wants to do it, and he's gonna play Harlan." Too bad it didn't happen. Meanwhile, if my nephew grows up and discovers that hes gay, This is the first book I'll hand him. Hell, if he's straight, I'll give him a copy anyway, after he turns 18 and his parents can't kill me.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic love story
Review: This classic gay love story is a gripping tale of a closeted track coach who falls in love with his openly gay star runner in the 1970s. As their relationship intensifies, they progress in their sport up to the 1976 Olympics, where they become targets of hate. It's an emotionally involving tale that grabs the reader from the beginning. Maybe some day the movie will get made...
Rating:
Summary: This book is guaranteed to change your life!
Review: This is considered by many (myself included) to be the classic gay love story. This book is an exquisitely written piece of literature, tracing track coach Harlan Brown's life, and his love for a young athlete, Billy, all the way the Olympics.
First published in 1973, The Front Runner has been translated into a number of languages, and has sold over ten million copies worldwide. In 1974, TFR was the first gay themed book to hit #1 on the New York Times best seller list. Read it, and you will know why this book has enjoyed such huge popularity over the years. Be warned though, I haven't met a single person who has been able to put this book down once started. It pulls you into the lives of Billy and Harlan, you feel their love, their joy and their pain. And, if you get to the end of the book, and you haven't shed tears, I would be tempted to say that you need to be checked for emotions!
Rating:
Summary: Catch up with The Front Runner!
Review: This is one of those books that I've heard about and read about for years but never got around to reading. I was missing out, and you are too if you haven't read it! I'm now reading one of the sequels, Harlan's Race. The Front Runner captures many aspects of politics, discrimination, and gay life. It also captures universal qualities of wanting acceptance, success, and love.
Rating:
Summary: moving read...
Review: This is the most beautiful love story I've ever read. I challenge anyone not to cry while reading it. I'm planning to have my mother read this next, as a way to finally come out to her. This is my new favorite book of all time......
Rating:
Summary: 3RD TIMES STILL CHARMING
Review: THIS IS THE THIRD TIME I HAVE READ THE FRONT RUNNER. THE FIRST TIME WAS WHEN I WAS FOURTEEN. I HAD NO IDEA THERE COULD BE SUCH A BOOK, ONE ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE ME. IT WAS FANTASTIC THEN AND IS STILL TODAY. IT'S GREAT TO COME ACROSS PHRASES AND LINES THAT WERE BURNED INTO THAT FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOYS MEMORIE. IT'S LIKE VISITING AN OLD FRIEND AGAIN.IF YOU'VE READ IT BEFORE YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. IF YOU'VE NEVER READ IT, DO SO. YOU'LL FEEL THE SAME AS I DO.HARLAN AND BILLY ARE OLD FRIENDS WHO TAUGHT ME THAT I WASN'T ALONE.
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